Thursday, July 31, 2014

Coming right along with this one. Amazing how the quilting calms down the puffy background without making pleats. Well, at least so far, that is!

Just had a couple of reasons for a short post. First of all, I think you know that where I live we have lots of critters! Deer eat our flowers, skunks have dug up our yards at times, turkeys trot up and down our streets looking for food beneath bird feeders, little ground squirrels chatter on our stoops and there have even been sly little foxes from time to time. This summer we have another critter creating a nuisance - or at least I think I know which one it is. Blaming it on racoons - they have taken to getting into the trashcans in our carports, dumping them over and, if the lid comes off, having a feast at what they find amid the contents. Mine has been dumped several times and I even bought a new one with a locking lid. Didn't work! So now I have a double bungee cord over the top and have been putting some ammonia in the sacks. So far, so good on that. This morning when I looked out my across the street neighbor had been visited by the roaming racoons. The can was overturned and things on her carport floor - not a lot, but some. Today is our yard cleanup day and the crew is in here doing the lawns. Looked out the window and there was one of the young fellows who has been trimming the sidewalks turning the trashcan up and putting the spilled contents back in. How nice is that for a random act of kindness. I am sure that is not in his job description, but good for that young fellow!! Warmed the cockles of my heart, as the old saying goes!!!!

Then later on I made myself feel bad. Realized I had forgotten my hair appointment yesterday and OMG how I needed it. Can't get in until next Wednesday. I am to the point where I feel like going into hiding. Well, I guess you win some and lose some, right! Luckily, that is not something I have done except for a couple of times in the fifteen or more years I have been with my beautician.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

After quite a bit of hassle, I am starting to get this piece quilted. The hassle came in the pinning process - which, like thread basting, is not one of my favorite parts of the quilt making process. The wall hangings are done on the big door on sawhorses that my husband rigged up for me to use as a worktable and it has served me well. I tape the backing wrong side up on the table with painter's tape then layer the batting and top on that and proceed to pin. I was able to get most of the piece on top of the table with just maybe six inches overhanging on each side. As with my little sunbonnet girls, I used wool batting. I had had no problem at all with that top. After the pins were all in and closed, I took off the tape so I could finish each side. When I looked at the back, it was all pleated and just plain awful!! Nothing could be done but unpin all those @#^?!!! pins and start over again. Took out the wool batting and found some cotton and started all over again. That turned out fine! The top and back did not cling to the wool like it does to cotton. But cannot figure out why the little girl quilt gave me no problems. Anyway, it was a hard fight, Mom, but I won!!

Here is a part of the center of the piece - I have had the bright idea of some buttons in the little blocks outlining the center. These bright ones would work well, but I am also thinking I may just cover some small ones with different fabrics and use those. I think that would add a lot. My loopy quilting is kind of small but I it seems to be making the applique stand out nicely and it goes along pretty quickly. Also thinking about putting some french knots in some places.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Finally finished quilting on Sue has a Crush on Kaffe! I have been working on this for most of the past week and just put the final stitches in a little while ago. Quilting the rays on the triangles was giving me fits - the thread kept breaking and I was using a bunch of choice words! I changed the needle (I am bad about keeping the same one in my machine for a long time - shame, shame) and that seemed to help immensely. The block backgrounds and outlining the little girls went very smoothly, thank goodness. Finished up the border today so it's ready to be trimmed and bound.

Here is a corner of the quilt so you can see what I did to the border. Nothing fancy, just some meandering up and down. I really do like the way the triangles look even though they gave me fits.

Hope no one examines them closely since they are not spaced very evenly and are wavy, but overall look pretty good.

Tuesday I went to Saginaw with Leslie, Linda and Kathy to go to a art quilt exhibition whose juror was Janna, one of the long time members of our quilt guild. Not a very big exhibit, but it was lovely and well worth going to see if you are in the Saginaw area. It's at the Saginaw Art Museum until September 6th. Here is what greeted you as you walked toward the area -

This is all done in one inch squares that end up as one-half inch squares after being sewn. Hard to imagine how a person can do this. Her name is Deb Hyde and she also had two other pieces in the show. I found this on the internet. Why I did not take pictures is beyond me! I found another picture similar to the won she won first place with -

Her work is awesome. We had four of our members represented at the exhibit - Kathy M. was one of them. Also showing work was Kathy A (the girl who did the racoons that I showed from our guild show), Nancy S and Janna. We went from there and had a nice lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Great little road trip with some great gals!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

I have had this little piece done for probably a year - even had the backing made. The other day I decided it was time to get it together and get it quilted. Worked first on the middle block with the little girl and knew just what to do with it--outlined everything then did my loopy quilting on the background. Then the triangles were the next to figure out. Deciding what to do where is, I think, the hardest part of quilting. I tried several things and did several rippings

Then I gave a go at the rays coming from the center and pointing to the feature blocks. By George, I like it! It's kind of a wrestling match but if Idon't do too much at a time, it's fine. Sue's hat was kind of bumpy from the fusible web so I did some lines on it and that calmed it down well. The little girl blocks quilt up quickly but the triangles take a while but I think it will be worth it.

Had Sit and Sew this week. It's been a spell since I've seen some of the girls and I really looked forward to Tuesday. It was a really fun day. It was Leslie's birthday - wish I had known it beforehand. Leslie is so much fun and one of my favorite people! What a great bunch of quilters in our group!! So a big, belated happy birthday to one great gal!!!

Today is the "garage sale" at Park Bench!! Can't miss that! Looks like they are going to have stellar weather for it this weekend. I am going to eat some lunch, get cleaned up a bit and go garage saleing!!! Will show you later what I buy.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

This morning I trimmed the excess batting and backing from this quilt. This is the one that started with a rainbow batik jelly row sewn into a row quilt and ended up being cut up into blocks and combined with Kaffe prints. Really hodgepodge but bright and pretty.

Here is a close up of some of the fabrics in the quilt and

here is another one. What a delight to work with the rich colors in batiks and the Westminister fabrics. Some of them are absolutely really ugly but it all seems to work so well.

I have had a big week - my nephew and his wife were here for a visit from Florida and it was so good to see Michael again and to meet Molly, his wife, for the first time. They both are retired from the service and are taking a big trip in their new motor home through the northeast. Sherry came over, too, and we all went out to dinner later. While we were at dinner, Sherry started to get texts - I had forgotten to put my phone in my purse. Well, good, good news which I'm not going to elaborate on just yet but let it suffice to say that I am tickled pink!!

Next day I had an appointment with my pulmonoligist which I was rather dreading from last visit. However, it was a good outcome and I will have another scan and visit in December. I have actually been feeling pretty darned good although my stamina is not nearly what it used to be. However at almost 86 that would probably be the case anyway! I can't walk a long way anymore but could push a cart around Target or the grocery store all day and be fine but occasionally a trip up to my mailbox tends to fluster me. All in all, I would say I don't have much to complain about!! I'm still as excited about my quilting as I ever was and enjoy the things I do on the computer. Pretty fortunate old woman!

The weather we have been having is amazing!! No real heat yet this summer - I mean the bad stuff. Yesterday it was so cool and the air was dry. Tends to be repeating itself today. For me, that is so welcome since I am not a hot weather girl!!!! It's different now then it used to be, however, because I don't have any outside work to take care of anymore so can just stay in when it's hot.

Guess I will take a trip to the mall and take back some shoes I ordered online from Kohl's. I bought another pair of sketchers which are so comfy, but this pair is too big. Have done a lot of rambling on!! See you next time.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Hope you are having a bang-up time this July 4th! And it would be nice of your weather is as nice where you are as it is here in Michigan. Things are quiet at my house but all is well.

Have been going on a cleaning out spree that started on last Sunday's power outage when I cleaned some drawers. That has gone on to the bottoms of my closets in the bedroom that were a mess and also to the shelves above where the clothes hang. Even did some shredding of old bank reconcillation sheets which had gone way beyond the seven years needed to keep them for tax purposes. The basement is pretty much back to where it should be so some things have been accomplished.

On Monday, I will get to see my nephew and his wife, Molly, who are on an extended trip in their motor home and I so look forward to that. They live in Florida and have been on the road for some time.

Yesterday I had another visitor!!

My friend, Kathy, brought her little granddaughter, Alexandria, over to see me. Grandma Kathy was taking her around and showing her off - and rightfully so!! This is one adorable little baby doll. Such a sweet, friendly little girl - she actually took a little nap on my lap. She is a little older than my little cutie pie greatgranddaugher, Lauren, but they aren't that far apart so Lauren is most likely doing similar things in the way of noises, etc.

Pieces of the Past

Here's Henry

And Here's Annie

And Here's Lauren

About Me

My name is Carol. I am a quiltaholic. I am now 85 years old and have been blessed with a wonderful family and good health. Keeping busy is no problem for me - in fact, I don't do much cleaning and cooking anymore. I have been quilting for about 35 years. Working on this computer is so amazing - how glad I am that I got in on this in my lifetime.

Funoldhag

(Selfies are in - I was gritting my teeth and taking pics of myself the other day. OMG, I hate how I look on the cellphone screen. However, there is the great delete button that you can get rid of the many bad pictures. I thought this one wasn't too bad so here is a current pic of Funoldhag.) AKA Carol---------My middle granddaughter and I used to tease and call each other silly names. She called me "the old hag" but always with a twinkle in her eye. I added "fun" to it and used it as one of my screennames.

The Start of it All

In 1972 when we moved to Overland Park, Kansas, I was given some quilt blocks by my neighbor. She knew I sewed and these had been made by her mother. She was in her 70's at that time. I put the blocks together with like white blocks. We would go to Arkansas a couple of times a year to fish and would always visit Eureka Springs, a darling little town in the Ozarks. I had never quilted but found a quilt shop there and eventually took the top to have it quilted in Arkansas. The backing and batting were included in the price of $50.00 for hand quilting. I took two other quilts down there before I finally started quilting them myself.